By Sune Engel Rasmussen in Beirut and Aresu Eqbali in Tehran
Iran is trying to mobilize an alliance of Russia, China and
other countries to help counter a U.S. pressure campaign that has
included crippling economic sanctions and thousands of additional
troops committed to the Middle East.
As Washington struggles to build robust international support
for its so-called maximum-pressure tactics against Tehran, Iranian
officials are working to take advantage.
They highlight American dominance of the global financial
system, which has irked both Russia and China. They also warn
against U.S. cyber and psychological warfare, themes that resonate
in Moscow and Beijing.
The Iranian effort is on display this week at a summit in the
Russian city of Ufa, where security officials from 119 nations have
gathered. Among the participants is India, a key economic partner
of Tehran, and China, which -- along with Russia, Germany, U.K. and
France -- is party to the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal with Iran
that the U.S. exited last year.
In a speech, a top Iranian security official called on "the
independent countries of the world" to break U.S. dominance of the
financial system.
"The U.S. has destabilized the international security system
with unilateralism and extraterritorial sanctions," Ali Shamkhani,
secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said
Tuesday. "If a broad spectrum of countries decide to stand against
the illegal blackmailing and bullying by the U.S., we can make the
U.S. retreat."
The summit takes place amid growing tensions between the U.S.
and Iran, following an attack on two oil tankers last week, which
Washington blamed on Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
This week, the U.S. said it would send an additional 1,000
troops to the Middle East in response to "hostile behavior" by
Tehran, following a decision in May to deploy an extra 1,500
soldiers. Monday's commitment came the same day that Iran said it
would stockpile more enriched uranium in the next 10 days than
allowed under the nuclear deal.
Iran has denied involvement in the tanker attack, and President
Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday that Iran doesn't want a war with any
nation, repeating a familiar line. Iran's military said Monday that
if it wanted to block tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, it didn't
need to lie about it.
China's top diplomat, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, said Tuesday
that the U.S. risked opening a "Pandora's box" in its campaign
against Iran and called on both countries to de-escalate, according
to the Associated Press news agency.
Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov voiced support
for Tehran, saying the international community needed to find ways
to restore Iranian oil exports, according to Russian state media
TASS.
Russian officials warned that the decision to increase the
number of U.S. troops in the Middle East could destabilize the
region.
"For quite a while, we have been witnessing the United States's
continuous attempts to increase political, psychological, economic
and military pressure on Iran," Mr. Ryabkov told reporters,
according to TASS. "I think that such actions are rather
provocative and cannot be considered as anything other than a
deliberate policy to instigate a war."
Separately on Tuesday, Russian and Iranian energy ministers met
in the Iranian city of Isfahan to continue discussions an
"oil-for-goods" program in which proceeds from sales of Iranian
crude could pay for Russian equipment and agricultural products,
Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told the Russian Rossiya 24
television channel.
Russia's interests aren't completely aligned with Iran's,
though. The two countries are competing for influence in Syria as
the civil war wraps up there. Next week, Nikolai Patrushev,
secretary of the Russian Security Council, will meet U.S. National
Security Adviser John Bolton and Israeli security officials in
Israel, an arch-foe of Iran.
In its own rallying efforts, the U.S. has called on the U.N.
Security Council to impose sanctions on Tehran over its missile
tests. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has asked the council, of
which Russia and China are members, to prevent Iran from
circumventing an arms ban by authorizing inspections of ships in
ports and stopping them in high waters. The council hasn't so far
complied.
Traditional U.S. allies like the U.K. and Saudi Arabia have
backed Mr. Pompeo and American military assertions that Iran
orchestrated last week's tanker attacks and incidents in May that
involved four other ships in the same area.
Iran has tried to cleave off European allies of the U.S., with
limited success. Tehran framed its decision to exceed
enriched-uranium limits as an ultimatum to European countries,
pushing them to ensure Iran receives economic benefits from staying
in the deal.
The European Union has expressed disapproval of the American
campaign against Iran and its withdrawal from the nuclear deal, but
officials like German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas have said any
Iranian culpability in the tanker attacks would complicate efforts
to help.
Georgi Kantchev and Thomas Grove in Moscow contributed to this
article
Write to Sune Engel Rasmussen at sune.rasmussen@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 18, 2019 11:29 ET (15:29 GMT)
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